A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

A dying human author travels to a foreign planet to die, but meets a young girl who he begins to teach the art and beauty of storytelling.

A naturalist's boyfriend offers to put her elderly dog down, but he finds it difficult as he thinks about his relationship.

A writing critic reviews the construction of Charles Chesnutt’s stories and how to write surfiction.

The Chappalwala family sends to the Mongerji’s magical letters containing animals and plants from around the world, but this practice which endured for generations comes to an end.

A writer arrives at an eerie residency near a lake where she camped with her Girl Scout troop as a child. The writer revisits a past trauma at the hands of the other Girl Scouts and comes to conclusions about what it is to reside in one's own mind. Along the way, she navigates a mysterious illness, a fellow resident whose identity and words are impossible to remember, and the appearance of a severed rabbit on her doorstep.

A young poet and a draconologist are the last survivors of a task force sent to seek out a dragon, who they must ask to become the next guardian of their people’s memories for fear of losing them all.

A professor tries to convey to his students the magnitude of the most perfectly crafted poem ever written in the English language: “Lycidas.”

In a world where mushrooms feed on creativity, an under-appreciated artist undergoes a risky operation to replace his dying inner voice. But when the first transplant fails, he must find another donor, or risk being banished from society forever.

In California, a young woman reflects on her relationship to her father while working on a novel. Through reading her father’s novel, she understands their relationship through his eyes.